Master and Apprentice
by Code name Anrui Yuy
Summary: Companion piece to Defying Gravity a look into the Exile's path to the Mandalorian Wars.  Oneshot.  Again, hugs for anyone who can figure out what song this piece is referencing.


**Master and Apprentice**

Dane Kavar closed his eyes wearily as the door to his apartment opened to him. Another emergency meeting had been called over the holo that an upstart knight on Dantooine and sent to all the padawans and young knights of the Coruscant academy. He must've lost almost two days worth of sleep over this, Revan… He rubbed at his eyes before blearily opening them to a sight that rather confused him. Not only was his former apprentice up at this ungodly hour, but she was dressed, she was dressed in clean robes, and she was packing.

"Something you want to tell me, Padawan?" He teased her, she hadn't truly been his padawan for a week now, she just had yet to move out of their shared quarters. "I know for a fact that you don't have your new room assignment, and won't for the next two weeks, you sick of living with me already?"

"I'm not staying at the temple."

The steeled resolve in her voice was not something Kavar often heard from her, with an amused chuckle he leaned on their table, "And where exactly will you be going, Rui?" He enjoyed seeing her flinch at the use of her youngling name. She stopped her actions and after a long breath she said softly, "I'm going to Dagri Minor."

All amusement dropped from Kavar's face, "Come again, Anarui?"

The young woman stood and turned to face Kavar, her dark eyes shinning as she moved a sable strand of hair from her face, her jaw set firmly. "I watched the holo from Revan, and I-". She paused, before straightening and looking Kavar straight in the eye, "I'm going."

Kavar went through a moment where his mind was horribly blank as he contemplated what she had just said. The moment passed and he broke into a soft chuckle, "Anarui, you can't be serious. What Revan is proposing is madness, the council ruled-"

"The council ruled to let the Republic burn! The Mandalorians are tearing the outer rim apart!"

"That's no reason to run off to war! You realize that you would be leaving the order to do this?"

"I don't care! People are DYING out there Master Kavar, my _homeworld_ is dying!"

"You were just knighted Anarui! Are you going to throw all of your training away?"

"I'm not throwing it away! I'm USING it, I'm doing what a jedi should. I'm going to defend the innocents!"

"You're answering a war call! You're going to throw your life away!" He grabbed her shoulder firmly, "Listen Ana, I know you're young, and you want excitement but-"

"You think THAT'S what this is about!" Anarui yelled, yanking herself from her master's grip, "You think I'm just bored? Looking for some action!? Kirima is neigh burned to the ground, my birth family is dead, the Cathar are on the fast track to extinction, Onderon is next on the chopping block and you think I'm THRILL SEEKING?"

"Just listen to me Anarui-" he reached out to her again, but she just jerked away again

"NO!" The force augmented scream left Kavar stunned and Anarui panting slightly from the exertion, "All I've done since I've come here is listen, over and over I've been told to listen. Well I've listened! I've listened to the reports of millions dying on the Outer Rim, I've listened to Republic officers begging for our aide, I've listened to the Mandalorians who laugh at the suffering they create, and now, now," She took a deep breath, "I have the strength to do something, and I have to use it, I have to go."

Kavar just stared. Despite himself he was slightly proud of her passion, her resolve as she stood before him, every inch a powerful and capable young woman, but that was greatly overshadowed by the fear that was now coursing through him.

"Listen, Ana, take some time, think about this. Wait a week and think about everything that you'll be leaving behind here."

Anarui kept staring him straight in the eye, "I have waited already. I've waited through three weeks of debate by the order, I've waited through the week of appeals from the Republic fleet, each night dreaming of yet another world dying, another population slaughtered and enslaved. I've waited. I know that I'll lose everything that I love here, I know I'll lose part of myself, and that's hard to face," her eyes glazed over a moment and she bit her lip as flashes of her dreams appeared before her again, "but it's harder to ignore it, I can't anymore, Master Kavar." Her eyes met his again, but now tears brimmed at the edges, "each night I feel another thousand voices silenced as if they were ripped from me, I have to go and try to stop this."

"Ana…please, it doesn't have to be you," he pleaded, resting a hand on her shoulder again and for a moment he was relieved when she didn't instantly step back or shove the hand away, but the cold anger that passed over her young face was even more frightening, her whole body had tensed under his hand, and her eyes carried a hint of disgust as she looked at him.

"If not me, then who Master Kavar? Certainly not you!" She now stepped forward aggressively, forcing Kavar to step back, "If not now, then when?" Another step, "It DOES have to be me Master Kavar, and it has to be now. Just because you lack the courage to stand up to the council-"

"This is not about me or my decisions, Anarui, it's about YOU! And YOU are not going to waste your life in a war!" Kavar finally yelled, his rapidly building panic incensing him to try and exert his authority over her

"You don't get it! The lives that are being wasted are the innocents that are dying on the outer-rim while we just sit here and let them be murdered"

"The council has not condemned them to death! We're simply choosing not to intervene."

"Apathy is death Master Kavar! We're condemning them by proxy by not trying to help! Well I'm not going to just sit back and wait for the blood to collect on my hands because I refused to help!"

"Sit back and wait is EXACTLY what you're going to do _Knight_ Adeo. You're going to unpack your bag and meditate until you realize what foolishness this is!"

Kavar's Padawan Anarui Adeo, the girl he had loved as a daughter for the past 12 years, rose onto her toes so her face was inches from Kavar's before she hissed in a taunting tone-

"Make me."

"What?"

She smirked, "You heard me, make me stay. I know if you wanted you could hold me with a stasis and drag me before the council so they could confine me. Do it."

Kavar could only stare. He could very well do what she described; he could easily prevent her from leaving. _…But she'll never forgive you for it…_ _…But…_Kavar wondered as he stared into her passionately dark eyes _…Could I ever forgive myself if I let her go?…_ He didn't get anymore of a chance to think; Anarui slung her pack onto her shoulders, shoved quickly past Kavar and was out the door before he could put together a word of protest.

Dane Kavar suddenly found himself feeling very much alone in an apartment that so many times had felt too small for him and his teenage apprentice as she had been growing up. It wasn't until the next day, when he felt her leave the planet did he find a small, neatly folded letter on his night stand, the looping scrawl unmistakably Anarui's…


End file.
